What is happening:
Due to massive grassroots backlash to the looming TikTok ban in the US, millions of users are currently creating accounts on Xiaohongshu aka “Little Red Book”. It is currently the top trending app in the Apple App Store.
Why it is special:
This is truly an unprecedented development. Never have regular American and Chinese netizens had the ability to mingle so freely. Even more unprecedented is the fact that most of this early conversation will be regarding backlash to the US itself. This presents us with an opportunity to appeal to a large swath of (mostly young) Americans at the same time.
What the goal is:
We have recently had several chats on this site about how to actually turn posting/effortposting into something positive. Several ideas have been floated regarding Agitprop and how to encourage the creation of engaging content, and many people agreed on the idea of Agitprop contests. That is what we will be trying to do here for the first time ever.
The contest/rules are quite loose here and definitely open to change, so feel free to give your input:
‼️In an effort to help shepard the rapidly growing disgruntled and pliable new English speaking audience on Xiaohongshu, the leftist post or comment for English speakers on Xiaohongshu that garners the most interactions before January 19th at 5PM GMT will be featured on c/agitprop.‼️
Simply submit by linking the post or comment in the replies of this post. Please try to include some kind of watermark that identifies it as a Hexbear user. Ideally if you can link back here we can foster a few new users as well. Good luck my fellow posters
As of now there are no submissions, so if you’d like to participate just comment a link to your post! Of course, feel free to reuse your own Hexbear posts, and if you want to use somebody else’s post reach out and ask permission first.
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Trend on Xiaohongshu: Americans have to pay a “cat tax” by showing photos of cats, which is then inspected by Chinese users who then allow entry.
Blessed Soviet cat
I’m still trying to figure out exactly what the prohibition against discussing politics means exactly.
Discussing that people are evading US government media control by being on Xiaohongshu is fine, as is discussing healthcare costs in the US, Luigi, I’ve seen Chinese users post Aaron Bushnell stuff even.
I know in the US people use the term “politics” to mean “certain things I personally realize are political” and don’t include other things that are definitely political, and it seems this is the case also on XHS, but I don’t know where those lines actually are.
Wildly based conversations
I appreciate the Lenin/Stalin/Mao stuff but I feel like the algorithm is trying to both-sides me by showing me literal Nazi shit as well
Got the same, I think they’re like “oh you like revolution era Russia, I bet you feel the same way about the third Reich”
Not 100% sure but it seems like at least one of the accounts that posts historical Soviet pictures also posts Nazi ones too. Although I also saw some of a user dressing up in Nazi stuff
Jesus havent seen anything like that yet that’s crazy
It’s all communism, animals, and the occasional thirst trap for me
Mine’s like that too right now but my TikTok was originally like that too. I think it’ll all come around.
Biggest thing would be an infographic or short explaining how to make an account without knowing Chinese*edit it’s way easier in the mobile app than in a web browser
Someone said that the Chinese users of that app are kinda on the well-off yuppie side. Anyone know if that’s true?
More reactionary/lib than communist for sure.
Welcome to the amazing diversity of China. We’re not all brainwashed communists lol. We have plenty of libs too.
Haha of course, I didn’t believe le oriental hivemind existed. But I was wondering if it’s a sort of even mix, or a representative proportion of the population, or skews one way or another on there
Seems to be but tbf it didn’t take long at all for me to start seeing communist and pro-worker stuff in my feed for what it’s worth
I mean that’s kinda par for the course, no?
I know plenty of broke people on western social media
This is for Chinese people abroad, so the user base will likely consist more of those with the resources to travel
Wait are all the Chinese folks on Little Red Book living outside or currently outside China?
Certainly not; I just believe I read that its initial purpose was to be a hub for Chinese citizens living abroad
I see I see
The terms and conditions link when you sign up are in Chinese and I can’t copy past for translation. It would help if they had english translations to legally required forums. I do give them credit that they seem to be pretty straight forward in the initial pop up.
Languages are very difficult for me. Especially non latin characters.
Error messges are also Chinese, which I can not read.
Anyone know what this means?
“Incorrect username or password”
Thanks. I thought it was wanting me to pick a password to start, but they just wanted my number and I’m on now.
First thing I saw was this guy …,and I’m like
can’t get away. But then there was a guy pointing out exactly how to switch the app to Engrish which was nice.
This is actually so wholesome omg
When I get off work. I plan on moving a fair amount of my TikTok content over. Still Miss Posadas if anyone wants to follow me on RedNote.
I’ve generally refused to download any Chinese apps for opsec reasons because I have family living and working there. Does anyone know anything about the data privacy of XHS? I’m not concerned about stuff I post on there but about access to the rest of my phone’s data.
Also good to raise awareness on TikTok side of things like this guy: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT218penQ/
Another good example of selling the switch: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT21NeGJ3/
Here’s a TikTok boba lib talking about going to xiaohongshu to promote Taiwan independence: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT212Edxd/
The users on this app are really nice I posted a picture of my cat with no tags and I already got 2 comments
Cats seem to be a cheat code
Americans do have to pay the cat tax.
Hell yeah
I was a little disappointed in the binary gender choice when creating an account. But at least it’s not owned by an American tech company.
You can skip it and select neither!
I missed that! I stand corrected, thank you.
Great things are happening in Rednote
Hell yeah
It’s like ¥120 for an ambulance in Wuhan, it’s a bloody outrage it is
The Yuan has the same symbol as the Yen?
Yuan and Yen both use ¥ internationally and, fittingly, are both derived from the same original character
Technically yen is 円 and yuan is 元 but they’re just different simplifications of the original traditional han character 圓
Ambulance is not free in mainland China, but (relatively speaking) cheap enough subject to regional differences. Average is probably 120-150 yuan for a 3km ride. Private hospitals can cost even higher because they only care about profits. Hong Kong, on the other hand, has had free ambulance service since the 1980s.
Police and firefighters are free though.
Obviously an ambulance shouldn’t really cost anything but fuck I’ll take $15 instead of $1500
It won’t bankrupt you like in America but spending 100 bucks is still a hole in the pocket unless you’re rich.
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120 yuan for a fast casual meal? What kind of fast casual meal are we talking about?
An average casual lunch is like 15-20 yuan, maybe a bit more expensive in some cities. Average Uber (Didi) fee is like 15-20 yuan for a few km. 150 yuan could probably get you a 5-course dinner in a restaurant already (per person).
Just because it converts to $16 doesn’t mean it’s $16 of purchasing power. It’s way, way more in China.
Hell, $50-$100 of USD equivalent purchasing power is still crazy cheap. That’s like one long Uber ride on a shitty night.
Yeah it’s not bad at all, but I’d probably want it to be a little cheaper because I imagine there’s gotta be a pretty big number of people for whom a $100USD emergency might ruin their month.
Something similar in Croatia. We kept it from good old never forgotten Yugoslavia.
It would be really funny if the TikTok ban because of sinophobia ends up causing being pro-China to become a mainstream opinion among young Americans, making neo-Red Scare propaganda more ineffective.
The patriot act did this, which is hilarious. Younger millennials and gen z never grew up expecting their data to have any privacy, so the “China is stealing your data” thing doesn’t really work on them. They also generally are saying “well what is China going to do with it anyway? I don’t care”
well what is China going to do with it anyway? I don’t care
Truly though. Like, let’s set aside the fact that I personally trust the Chinese government waaaaay more than the US government. We’ll assume I’m an average American. I still trust China with my data more than the US for the simple fact that I don’t live in China. What can they do about it?
If the US doesn’t like what I’m posting they have the ability to send armed thugs to my door. China does not have that ability.
Right if given the choice between the Chinese or the US govt having my data, I will take China, thanks. The US gov will probably use it to imprison me for thought crimes. The Chinese gov will just use it to market more treats to me on AliExpress.
And I like Chinese treats, what can I say?
They also generally are saying “well what is China going to do with it anyway? I don’t care”
Legitimately what is China going to do with it? Beyond just selling it like every other tech company.
I highly doubt the PRC cares enough to keep track of random US citizens, but the US government definitely does. My data is safer in Chinese hands than American.
I’m sure they think their data is blackmail material, like Xi is going to call them up and tell them they have to be a spy for the PRC or they’ll tell their wife about their search history
The only Americans who have any need to worry about Chinese espianoge are red-blooded imperialists, and they tell on themselves every time they act like this is some widespread public concern.
Also if China wanted, they could just buy it from meta or whoever. And really, does the PRC have any control over TikTok’s US data? Last I heard they had to give it all over to oracle or someone, but idk I can’t pay attention to all this shit
I remember it constantly being beaten in my head as a kid, and at school, them telling me “Anything you say on the Internet can be tracked to you. Potential future employers might see photos of you in a party before a job offer, and then revoke your offer, you might get fired for one small complaint about your employer, colleges might rescind your acceptance for it, and your friends and family will disown you!” Given that they put that whole panopticon on us, and how one small post can ruin our career, our education, and our relationships (even if it WAS a bit exaggerated), “Some foreign government in some country full of people you never have met and likely never will meet might have your data and do… something(?) with it” doesn’t really hold a whole lot of weight.
that is so funny. when I was growing up in the 90s, nobody was thinking about the internet like that. but we had the same story told to us.
sometimes it was some kind of “book” kept by the school. your “permanent record”. other times, it was just the memory of the teacher. I remember a teacher telling us that a former student of hers was trying to get some really prestigious job, and as part of a background check the potential employer came to ask her how was he like as an 11 year old. it was of course many years later so all she could remember was that he hit another kid once. so, sadly, he didn’t get the job.
I had thought that with the internet, you maybe couldn’t get such a stupid story by kids. like I always thought it probably wasn’t true but it was hard to be sure because I had no source of adult information that didn’t have a vested interest in keeping me in line. but I guess the internet didn’t help things.
it was of course many years later so all she could remember was that he hit another kid once. so, sadly, he didn’t get the job.
What a fucking snitch.
Idk would you really consider a teacher a snitch? to my mind (as a child) she is an authority figure who is structurally in opposition to one’s interests. not so much a snitch a class enemy. "snitch " is a term applied to an equal.
I particularly love the “social credit score” bit.
So China built a panopticon to try to improve civility? Anerica built a panopticon to precision-price debt and insurance. Which is the better use of the resources and social compromises?
The amount of projection with the social credit score is amazing. In reality, the social credit systems were a unified public background checks for people and businesses. There was no score because that’s not useful. Neither is the score Americans see. Its just an abstraction so they can tell you how you’re doing without exposing the insane amount of data they have on you and how they analyze it.
😤
